Steven’s face was flushed, and he balled his gloved hands to fists and cleared his throat. “May I present Her Grace, the Dowager Duchess of Southdown?” he said stiffly. “My fiancée.”
“What?” Mrs. Ellis raised her head, her voice ragged. “Fiancée? What are you talking about?”
Steven continued to stand rigidly. “If you’d bothered to look at a newspaper the last few days, you’d have seen it splashed everywhere.”
Mrs. Ellis stared at him a moment, then she swung her gaze to the maid who’d followed Rose into the parlor, trying to stop her. “Evans,” she snapped. “Fetch me a newspaper.”
The maid curtseyed then vanished without a word. She was back quickly, newspapers in her hand. She handed one to Mrs. Ellis, face-up to the place that said, Captain S— McB— and his tenacious duchess dine together, then head for the theatre with his illustrious McK— in-laws. The play in question was Medea. One hopes it is not prophetic.
Mrs. Ellis read this, her color changing from red to unhealthy pale. “Oh.” She looked up, not at Rose, but at Steven, and her expression was one of chagrin but also relief—vast relief. How odd. “Steven, forgive me. I had no idea.” She turned to Rose and flushed again. “I’m so sorry, Your Grace.” She sank down to the sofa, the spirit gone out of her.
Rose sat next to her in concern. “Are you all right? Evans, please bring your mistress tea.”
Evans hurried to obey while Steven stood in the center of the room, a masculine pillar in the midst of feminine hysteria.
“Steven, you should have told me,” Mrs. Ellis said, looking up at him, her handkerchief at her eyes again. “I never would have . . .”
“Forget it,” Steven said in a firm voice. “It’s done.”
The tension between them was thick. Rose wished she knew what was going on, but she realized that now was not the time to ask.
“Congratulations.” Mrs. Ellis directed the word first at Steven then at Rose. “I hope you will be happy. I truly do.”
“I intend to be,” Steven answered.
The look he sent Rose seemed to erase all doubt in Mrs. Ellis’s mind. She turned a genuine smile on Rose. “My sincerest apologies, Your Grace. Steven was right—I knew nothing, and only assumed. I think this is wonderful. The best thing that could happen. You’ve brightened my day a bit.” She squeezed Rose’s hand, and Rose smiled back, more to reassure her than anything else.
The tea came. Rose poured a cup for Mrs. Ellis and pushed it into her hand but declined any herself.
“We have much to do,” Rose said, rising. “Everything is very rushed, unfortunately.” She took Mrs. Ellis’s hand. “Again, I am very sorry to hear about your husband. I know well what it is to lose one so dear. We will never cease missing them, but it does become more bearable. But we wouldn’t want to lose the pain entirely, would we? Then it would be as if they hadn’t mattered.”
Mrs. Ellis nodded, tears filling her eyes again. “You are right. Entirely right.” She set aside her tea and got to her feet, becoming again the polite woman Rose had met the day before. “Take care of Steven, Your Grace. He deserves happiness.”
She squeezed Rose’s hands then let her go. Steven was beside Rose now, his hand on her elbow. “Good-bye, Laura,” he said firmly, and steered Rose out.
***
Not until they were in the carriage, moving through the streets toward the Langham did Rose venture to speak.
“If you don’t wish to talk of it, I understand,” she said to Steven, who’d taken the seat opposite her. “But I admit a healthy curiosity.”
Steven had been silent since they’d left the house, but he now held out a hand to Rose. “Come and sit with me.”
He was asking her to throw propriety to the wind. Ladies and gentlemen who were not related did not occupy the same seat in a carriage, and the ladies always rode facing forward while the gentlemen faced the rear of the coach.
The little rules seemed ridiculous now that they’d broken so many larger ones. Rose didn’t hesitate to go to Steven and snuggle in next to him. She laid her cheek on his warm coat, and he slid his arm around her as rain streaked the carriage windows like tears.
“My friend Ronald and I first met Laura five years ago, when we were on leave for Christmas,” Steven began. “And we both fell hard. She was twenty-two and a stunning beauty.”
“She is still quite pretty,” Rose managed to say. The bite of jealousy rose up in her again, but she would run back to the hotel alone in the rain before she’d admit it.
Steven touched her cheek. “You’re a generous soul, Rosie. Ronald and I made great fools of ourselves for her. We were best friends, closer than most brothers, and I think we enjoyed the game for her affections. She certainly enjoyed playing us one off the other. She had us fighting for her favors, each trying to trick the other out of escorting her to whatever outings we’d planned. We both went a little mad, threatening each other with dire fates. Laura sat between us and lapped up every morsel of it. I postured as much as Ronald, even coming to blows with him, but somewhere in the back of my mind, no matter how far things went, I still considered it all a game. After Christmas, we’d rejoin the regiment as best friends.” Steven drew a sharp breath. “When Laura chose me as her affianced, I was very proud of myself. What I didn’t realize at the time was that Ronald hated me for it.”
“Oh.” Rose’s heart squeezed, and she fought her demon again. No reason for it, she told herself. Clearly the marriage had not come to pass. “But she married Captain Ellis,” she said, puzzled.
Steven gave her a nod. “That came later, after I squired Laura about for the rest of that season, very full of myself. She quite played it up as well. What neither she nor I knew was how much Ronald felt it. I had no idea—I was only pleased I’d won the game. I play to win.” He let out a breath, sounding bitter. “One night, Ronald cornered me alone in my hotel room. He had a pistol and vowed to shoot me, then himself.”
Rose sat up in alarm. “Good heavens. What did you do?”
“He was very drunk, and I was able to wrestled the pistol away from him, thank God. But I saw the misery in his eyes. I realized in that single moment that Ronald loved Laura deeply, and I never had. I’d been infatuated, and wanted to best everybody, as I always do. I’d been gambling as usual, but this time with friendship and our lives.”